The use of mobile communication services is rapidly increasing over the years, and this growth is expected to continue for the foreseeable future with the introduction of new mobile phone technologies. It is in fact common now for almost any adult and youngster to own a cellular phone device capable of managing a plethora of daily operations and activities, in addition to the conventional audio/voice telephony communication functionality of the device. For example, almost any cellular phone device provides, nowadays, events scheduling and alert applications, text messaging services, date/time displays and alarm clock functionalities. It is thus common that the cellular telephone devices are constantly maintained in the vicinity of their users, even during time periods wherein the device is not being used e.g., when recharging the battery pack of the device and/or during the night time when the user is asleep.
However, cellular telephone devices transmit electromagnetic radiation, even when not being used, as they are required to identify the closest base stations and monitor communication therewith. Cellular telephone devices use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range (450-2100 MHz), which have been classified as being possibly carcinogenic (Group 2B, International Agency for Research on Cancer—IARC, 2011) i.e., carcinogenicity risks can exist. It is known that part of the radiation emitted by mobile telephone devices is absorbed by the human body, which has a cumulative effect that is not yet fully understood.
In most cellular telephony systems the cellular phone device and the base stations check reception quality and signal strength using signaling schemes wherein the power level of the transmitted signals is progressively increased or decreased automatically within certain spans, to accommodate different situations, such as inside or outside of buildings and vehicles. In addition, data communication between the cellular phone devices and the base stations is performed in a continuous manner over predefined control channels for exchanging information therebetween (e.g., registration, origination, and paging).
Possible solutions known from the patent literature for reduction of electromagnetic radiation emission from cellular phone devices are briefly described hereinbelow.
US Patent Publication No. 2002/055336 describes an antenna module for a cellular phone which is capable of minimizing the effect of electromagnetic radiation of the cellular phone on the human body and enhancing the quality of speech of the cellular phone. The antenna module comprises two helix antennas installed in the cellular phone transversally apart from each other, and a power supply unit connected to the helix antennas for applying two power signals with the same power level and opposite phases respectively to the helix antennas. This antenna module is able to radiate a minimized amount of electromagnetic waves in the longitudinal direction of the cellular phone, or toward either the top or rear part of the cellular phone, and an increased amount of electromagnetic waves in the transversal direction of the cellular phone, respectively, thereby minimizing electromagnetic radiation to the human body while at the same time enhancing the quality of speech of the cellular phone.
US Patent Publication No. 2002/009976 describes a radiation-protection device for cellular telephones using a radiation-resistant protective panel between the cellular telephone and the head of the person using the telephone. This protective panel may be mounted directly on the telephone. It may be mounted directly upon the case in which the telephone is housed or may be a portion of the case which is swung up into position between the telephone antenna and the user's head when the telephone is in use.
US Patent Publication No. 2013/035142 describes a radiation shield that comprises a substrate polymer layer, a conductive layer having an aperture providing access to a front face of a cellular telephone, adjacent the substrate polymer layer, and an adhesion surface adjacent the conductive layer and the front face. At least one opening is provided for accessing the front face of the cellular telephone.
A power saving solution designed for information terminals in described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,787,821, wherein an information terminal device uses a first radio communication unit capable of performing radio communication with low power consumption and a second radio communication unit performing data communication using a wireless LAN. In an ad-hoc mode in which data communication is performed between the terminals, as a rule, the second radio communication unit is set in a sleep mode. However, when actual data communication is necessary, an activation signal is transmitted to a terminal as a communication party by using the first radio communication unit to activate the second radio communication unit. After completion of data communication, a stop signal is transmitted to the terminal as the communication party by using the first radio communication unit to stop the second radio communication unit on the transmission side. In such a manner, transmission of a beacon signal from the second radio communication unit is suppressed, and proper power saving is realized.
General Description
Cellular phone devices are required during their operation to guarantee that communication is being continuously maintained with base stations of the cellular network, and therefore emit electromagnetic radiation also when not being used to communicate audible and/or other information/data. This means that users are regularly exposed to electromagnetic radiation emitted from their cellular phone devices throughout day and night, and in a majority of cases during the entire 24 hours of the day. Most attempts to reduce a user's exposure to electromagnetic radiation emitted from their cellular phone devices involved adding shielding means, or use of certain antenna configurations, designed to attenuate the amount of electromagnetic radiation emitted from the cellular phone device in the direction of the user.
There is a need in the art for techniques for limiting and controlling the radiation emitted from any (on the shelf) cellular phone, without requiring special shielding and/or hardware modifications. In a broad aspect the present invention provides techniques for limiting and controlling the electromagnetic radiation emitted from a cellular phone device by selectively deactivating the cellular communication (transceiver) unit of the device, and activating it to permit cellular communication when it is specifically needed by the user and/or by predefined entities/contact persons e.g., emergency or other high importance telephone communication.
For this purpose the inventors hereof developed a communication control scheme designed to enable cellular mobile devices to selectively switch the state of the cellular communication unit of a user's cellular phone device between its active and inactive states, and notify one or more cellular phone devices of selected entities/contacts of at least the switching of the user's cellular phone device into the inactive state. The communication control scheme is further designed to provide the cellular devices of the notified entities/contacts one or more options to send, upon need, via alternative communication channels (e.g., using WLAN, WiFi, Satellite communication—SATCOM, etc.), a request to switch the cellular communication unit of the user's cellular mobile device into an active state for allowing them to initiate cellular communication therewith (referred to herein as activation request).
This communication control scheme is implemented in some embodiments by means of a communication manager module installed in the user's cellular mobile device, and configured to allow the user to specify selected entities/contact persons, to selectively deactivate the cellular communication unit of the phone device whenever certain predetermined conditions/events are satisfied (e.g., when the device is being charged at night), or upon receiving a deactivation input from the user. Optionally, and in some embodiments preferably, the communication manager module notifies the selected contacts (e.g., over any suitable communication channel, such as but not limited to, the cellular network, WLAN/Internet/WiFi, SATCOM, etc.) at least that the cellular communication unit of the user's device been switched into an inactive mode i.e., cellular communication is temporarily being disabled (hereinafter also referred to as deactivation notification).
Optionally, and in some embodiments preferably, the communication manager module is further configured to notify the cellular mobile device of the selected contacts when the cellular communication unit is being switched from the inactive state into the active state (hereinafter also referred to as activation notification). The deactivation and activation notifications may be carried out using any suitable predetermined signaling scheme that can be received and correctly interpreted by the cellular devices of the selected contacts.
In some embodiments a call manager module is installed in the cellular mobile device of the selected contacts for managing the notifications received from the user's cellular mobile device, and for managing outgoing telephone call events initiation. The call manager module is preferably configured to receive the deactivation and activation notifications from the user's cellular phone device and enable the user to send activation requests to the user's cellular mobile device whenever cellular communication therewith is required.
One inventive aspect of the subject matter disclosed herein relates to a cellular communication system capable of establishing cellular communication between a plurality of cellular communication devices (e.g., cellular phone devices) over a cellular communication network. The cellular communication system is configured to enable end users control over emission of electromagnetic radiation from their cellular communication devices. Each of the plurality of cellular communication devices comprises a cellular communication unit connectable to the cellular communication network, and a wireless data communication unit (e.g., WLAN, SATCOM) connectable to a data network (e.g., the Internet), and a control unit configured and operable to operate the cellular communication device. A communication manager module installed in the cellular communication device is configured and operable to selectively deactivate, at least partially, operation of the cellular communication unit upon fulfillment of defined events or conditions (e.g., defined by a user), and to send a deactivation notification, through at least one of the cellular and wireless data communication units, to at least one another preselected cellular communication device of the plurality of cellular communication devices, to inform the at least partial deactivation of its cellular communication unit.
In some embodiments, the communication manager module is configured and operable to activate the cellular communication unit whenever cellular communication therewith is required, and to send an activation notification to the at least one other preselected cellular communication device through at least one of the cellular and wireless data communication units.
Preferably, in some embodiments, the control unit of the at least one other preselected cellular communication device comprises a call manager module configured and operable to receive and process the deactivation notification and responsively intercept and halt attempts to initiate cellular communication with the cellular communication device whose cellular communication unit been at least partially deactivated. The call manager module is also configured and operable to send to the cellular communication device whose cellular communication unit been at least partially deactivated, an activation request via its wireless data communication unit to request activation of the cellular communication unit whenever cellular communication therewith is required. Accordingly, the communication manager module is further configured and operable to receive and process the activation request and responsively activate its cellular communication unit.
The communication manager module is further configured and operable to send an activation notification to the call manager module through at least one of the cellular and wireless data communication units to inform that its cellular communication unit is being activated. The call manager module is configured and operable to receive and process the activation notification and responsively release the intercepted attempts for cellular communication initiation.
Optionally, and in some embodiments preferably, the deactivation of the cellular communication unit is responsive to an input from the user of the communication device. The at least partial deactivation can comprise deactivating a cellular transmitter of the cellular communication unit, or deactivating the cellular transmitter and cellular receiver of the cellular communication unit.
Optionally, the wireless data communication unit is configured to communicate data over a satellite communication channel.
Another inventive aspect of the subject matter disclosed herein relates to a method of reducing emission of electromagnetic radiation from a cellular communication device having a cellular communication unit and a wireless communication unit. The method comprises deactivating, at least partially, operation of the cellular communication unit responsive to fulfillment of a defined condition or event, sending a deactivation notification to at least one other preselected cellular communication device through at least one of the communication units to inform that cellular communication of the cellular communication device been disabled, and receiving through the wireless communication unit an activation request from the at least one other preselected cellular communication device, and responsively activating the cellular communication unit.
In some embodiments, the method further comprises sending an activation notification to the at least one other preselected cellular communication device, upon, or shortly after, activating cellular communication unit of the cellular communication device. In this case, cellular communication is then established with the at least one other preselected cellular communication device.
In possible applications, the method comprises receiving inputs from a user of the cellular communication device for defining the condition or event. Optionally, the defined event is a user input indicating that deactivation of the cellular communication unit is required by a user of the device.
The sending of the deactivation notification comprises in some embodiments including in the deactivation notification instructions for the at least one other preselected cellular communication device about how to restore cellular communication with the cellular communication device.
In a variant, the method comprises receiving from a user of the cellular communication device selected contacts, wherein the at least one other preselected cellular communication device is a cellular communication device of at least one of said selected contacts. In some embodiments an enrollment invitation is sent to cellular communication devices of the selected contacts informing them about their selection by the user. Optionally, and in some embodiments preferably, the enrollment invitation is configured to cause installation of a call manager module in the cellular communication devices of the selected contacts, and the call manager module is configured to receive the deactivation notification and send the activation request through the wireless communication unit.
Optionally, the method comprises receiving from the user priority indications for at least one of the selected contacts, and deciding whether to activate the cellular communication unit based on the priority indications. In possible embodiments, the call manager module is configured to include in the activation request a priority indication, and the method can thus comprise deciding whether to activate the cellular communication unit based on the priority indication.
Yet another inventive aspect of the subject matter disclosed herein relates to a computer application configured and operable to reduce emission of electromagnetic radiation from a cellular communication device having a cellular communication unit and a wireless communication unit, by carrying out the following operations: deactivating, at least partially, operation of the cellular communication unit responsive to fulfillment of a defined condition or event, sending a deactivation notification to at least one other preselected cellular communication device through at least one of the communication units to inform that cellular communication of the cellular communication device has been disabled, and receiving through the wireless communication unit an activation request from the at least one other preselected cellular communication device, and responsively activating the cellular communication unit.
Preferably, the computer application is further configured and operable to send an activation notification to the at least one other preselected cellular communication device, upon, or shortly after, activating the cellular communication unit. Optionally, the computer application is further configured and operable to receive inputs from a user of the cellular communication device for defining the condition or event.
In some embodiments the computer application is configured and operable to include, in the deactivation notification, instructions for the at least one other preselected cellular communication device about how to restore cellular communication with the cellular communication device.
Optionally, and in some embodiments preferably, the computer application is configured and operable to receive from a user of the cellular communication device selected contacts, and to send the deactivation notification to a cellular communication device of at least one of said selected contacts. Optionally, the computer application is configured and operable to receive, from the user, priority indications for at least one of the selected contacts, and to decide whether to activate the cellular communication unit based on said priority indications.
Optionally, and in some embodiments preferably, the computer application is configured and operable to send to cellular communication devices of the selected contacts an enrollment invitation informing about their selection by the user. The enrollment invitation can be configured to cause installation of a call manager module in the cellular communication devices of the selected contacts for receiving the deactivation notification and for sending the activation request through the wireless communication unit.